An apparatus and method for the automated positioning of an examination table relative to a medical-technical imaging installation is provided.
The disclosed embodiments relate to a method and a user interface for the automated positioning of an examination table relative to a medical-technical imaging installation, in particular, a radiological imaging installation such as a computed tomography installation (CT) or a C-arm X-ray apparatus.
For planning a radiological examination, for example in computed tomography, an overview recording of the examination region is created. The overview recording is also referred to as a topogram. The topogram is the basis of the anatomical planning for the subsequent diagnostic scans. Furthermore, the topogram may be used to derive diverse parameters for automatically optimizing the examination protocol.
At present, a recording region (also referred to as scan region) may be positioned by manual selection of a start line and an end line of the recording region that are marked by a light beam localizer with laser marking lines on a patient or examination object lying on an examination table (patient couch) of the imaging installation. The examination table is movable in the longitudinal direction (z-direction) relative to a scanner (e.g. the gantry of a CT installation). The longitudinal axis of the patient may be generally parallel to the longitudinal direction of the examination table, and the examination table is often situated outside the scanner. If the start and end lines extend in the width direction (x-direction) of the examination table, the recording region may be defined in the longitudinal direction of the patient.
In order to create the overview recording, the patient has to adopt a suitable position on the examination table. The operator thereupon moves the table into a suitable start position by movement commands in order to record the organ or body region to be examined. The start position is reached when the anatomical start point sought becomes congruent with a laser line in the gantry. The laser line marks the plane in which the scan begins.
One conventional technique when determining the start point is feeling anatomical regions. By manually feeling the patient, the operator acquires information about the position of anatomical landmarks (e.g. the hip bone). Feeling becomes necessary if the patient's anatomy is hidden by bedding, clothing or medical apparatuses or no anatomical landmarks are visible, in principle, on account of the organ to be examined. The tactile information is transmitted into a visually detectable position by the position of the fingers. The start point of the overview recording is derived therefrom.
After the localization of the landmark and identification of the start point, the operator memorizes the anatomical landmark identified from manual examination, the start point resulting from the manual examination, or marks the corresponding location with a suitable aid.
It is known to compensate for positioning that initially is still inaccurate by manual readjustment by horizontal movements of the table. Accordingly, the operator uses a laser light beam localizer to visually monitor whether the position sought in the scan plane has been reached.